Most great swimmers are used to giving their best effort in the evening and have difficulty swimming fast in the morning because that’s the way it has always been.

But due to the time difference between the US and Beijing, the swimming schedules have been turned around to make sure that the prime audiences in the US can see Phelps go for the record.

It will be a change for everyone, which hopefully the swimmers addressed in practice before leaving for Beijing. Since they will all need to acclimate to the reversed times, it shouldn’t be any worse for Michael than anyone else.

The cliché says that records were made to be broken, but the truth is that a few records just take some beating. The fact that only Biondi and Phelps have emerged to challenge this record over all these years shows how difficult a task it is.

If Phelps were to break my record, he should deservedly be considered the greatest swimmer at this time and one of the greatest Olympians ever.

Mark Spitz, the author holds the record for winning the most number of golds at a single Olympics, seven in the 1972 Munich Games.

We are proud of Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar and Bijender Kumar. Congratulations to all of them. I hope now the corporate world and media in the country will concentrate more on games other than cricket.